Saturday, September 13, 2008

The change we need?


"Senator Biden was elected to the U.S. Senate the same year I was born, and the actuaries tell me I'm approaching middle age...Barack Obama's decision to put a career Washington insider like Biden on his ticket suggests Obama isn't serious about bringing change to Washington."

- New Hampshire GOP Chairman Fergus Cullen.


Granted that the McCain/Palin ticket is far from perfect from the Catholic perspective. But that ticket is (for the most part) pro-life. Both McCain and Palin oppose Roe v. Wade. Both have committed themselves to reform of government. And McCain's choice of Palin suggests that he is serious about bringing change to Washington.

The Obama/Biden ticket promises "the change we need." Senator Biden was in Nashua, New Hampshire the other day singing the praises of Senator Obama while continuing his attacks on Senator McCain. In order to form a more accurate picture of Senator Biden, let's review Jim Geraghty's compilation of Joe Biden quotes which he presented to National Review Online on August 20, 2008 in an article entitled "'Just Words' that Joe Biden Would Like To Forget":

On McCain: Biden, on a post-debate appearance on MSNBC, October 30, 2007: “The only guy on the other side who’s qualified is John McCain.”

Biden appearing on The Daily Show, August 2, 2005: “John McCain is a personal friend, a great friend, and I would be honored to run with or against John McCain, because I think the country would be better off, be well off no matter who...”

On Meet the Press, November 27, 2005: “I’ve been calling for more troops for over two years, along with John McCain and others subsequent to my saying that.”

On Obama: Reacting to an Obama speech on counterterrorism, August 1, 2007: “‘Look, the truth is the four major things he called for, well, hell that’s what I called for,’ Biden said today on MSNBC’s Hardball, echoing comments he made earlier in the day at an event promoting his book at the National Press Club. Biden added, ‘I’m glad he’s talking about these things.’” Also that day, the Biden campaign issued a release that began, “The Biden for President Campaign today congratulated Sen. Barack Obama for arriving at a number of Sen. Biden’s long-held views on combating al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.” That release mocked Obama for asking about the “stunning level of mercury in fish” and asked about a proposal for the U.S. adopt a ban on mercury sales abroad at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

Assessing Obama’s Iraq plan on September 13, 2007: “My impression is [Obama] thinks that if we leave, somehow the Iraqis are going to have an epiphany” of peaceful coexistence among warring sects. “I’ve seen zero evidence of that.”

Speaking to the New York Observer: Biden was equally skeptical — albeit in a slightly more backhanded way — about Mr. Obama. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” Also from that Observer interview: “But — and the ‘but’ was clearly inevitable — he doubts whether American voters are going to elect ‘a one-term, a guy who has served for four years in the Senate,’ and added: ‘I don’t recall hearing a word from Barack about a plan or a tactic.’”

Around that time, Biden in an interview with the Huffington Post, he assessed Obama and Hillary Clinton: “The more people learn about them (Obama and Hillary) and how they handle the pressure, the more their support will evaporate.”

December 11, 2007: “If Iowans believe campaign funds and celebrity will fix the debacle in Iraq, put the economy on track, and provide health care and education for America’s children, they should support another candidate,” said Biden for President Campaign Manager Luis Navarro. “But I’m confident that Iowans know what I know: our problems will require experience and leadership from Day One. Empty slogans will be no match for proven action on caucus night.” Also that night, Biden said in a campaign ad, “When this campaign is over, political slogans like ‘experience’ and ‘change’ will mean absolutely nothing. The next president has to act.”

September 26, 2007: Biden for President Campaign Manager Luis Navarro said, “Sen. Obama said he would do everything possible to end the war in Iraq and emphasized the need for a political solution yet he failed to show up to vote for Sen. Biden’s critical amendment to provide a political solution in Iraq.

December 26, 2006: “Frankly, I think I’m more qualified than other candidates, and the issues facing the American public are all in my wheelbarrow.”

On Iraq: Biden on Meet the Press in 2002, discussing Saddam Hussein: “He’s a long term threat and a short term threat to our national security… “We have no choice but to eliminate the threat. This is a guy who is an extreme danger to the world.”

Biden on Meet the Press in 2002: “Saddam must be dislodged from his weapons or dislodged from power.”

Biden on Meet the Press in 2007, on Hussein’s WMDs: “Well, the point is, it turned out they didn’t, but everyone in the world thought he had them. The weapons inspectors said he had them. He catalogued — they catalogued them. This was not some, some Cheney, you know, pipe dream. This was, in fact, catalogued.”

Biden, on Obama’s Iraq plan in August 2007: “I don’t want [my son] going [to Iraq],” Delaware Sen. Joe Biden said from the campaign trail Wednesday, according to a report on Radio Iowa. “But I tell you what, I don’t want my grandson or my granddaughters going back in 15 years and so how we leave makes a big difference.”

Biden criticized Democratic rivals such as Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama who have voted against Iraq funding bills to try to pressure President Bush to end the war. “There’s no political point worth my son’s life,” Biden said, according to Radio Iowa. “There’s no political point worth anybody’s life out there. None.”

Biden on Meet the Press, April 29, 2007: “The threat [Saddam Hussein] presented was that, if Saddam was left unfettered, which I said during that period, for the next five years with sanctions lifted and billions of dollars into his coffers, then I believed he had the ability to acquire a tactical nuclear weapon — not by building it, by purchasing it. I also believed he was a threat in that he was — every single solitary U.N. resolution which he agreed to abide by, which was the equivalent of a peace agreement at the United Nations, after he got out of — after we kicked him out of Kuwait, he was violating. Now, the rules of the road either mean something or they don’t. The international community says “We’re going to enforce the sanctions we placed” or not. And what was the international community doing? The international community was weakening. They were pulling away.”

Biden to the Brookings Institution in 2005: “We can call it quits and withdraw from Iraq. I think that would be a gigantic mistake. Or we can set a deadline for pulling out, which I fear will only encourage our enemies to wait us out — equally a mistake.”

Analyzing the surge on Meet the Press, September 9, 2007: “I mean, the truth of the matter is that, that the — America’s — this administration’s policy and the surge are a failure, and that the surge, which was supposed to stop sectarian violence and — long enough to give political reconciliation, there’s been no political reconciliation... The reality is that, although there has been some mild progress on the security front, there is, in fact, no, no real security in Baghdad and/or in Anbar province, where I was, dealing with the most serious problem, sectarian violence. Sectarian violence is as strong and as solid and as serious a problem as it was before the surge started.”

Biden in October of 2002: “We must be clear with the American people that we are committing to Iraq for the long haul; not just the day after, but the decade after.”

On Meet the Press, January 7, 2007, assessing the proposal of a surge of troops to Iraq: “If he surges another 20, 30, or whatever number he’s going to, into Baghdad, it’ll be a tragic mistake, in my view, but, as a practical matter, there’s no way to say, ‘Mr. President, stop.’”

On Meet the Press, November 27, 2005: “Unless we fundamentally change the rotation dates and fundamentally change how many members of the National Guard we’re calling up, it’ll be virtually impossible to maintain 150,000 folks this year.” (The number of troops in Iraq peaked at 162,000 in August 2007, during the surge.)

The change we need? Or just more Washington double-speak? Senator Biden says one thing when he feels it is appropriate and then directly contradicts himself when he considers it expedient to do so.

The change we need? Or simply empty slogans and politics as usual?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Biden was consistently critical of Obama and his lack of experience during the early part of this campaign. Now he is singing his praises. What the rich and powerful will say in order to attain more money, power and influence. You cannot trust anything coming from the lips of Joe Biden in my opinion. The guy is just two-faced.

Anonymous said...

Senator Biden is part of the old-time Washington status quo which has to go. Like Senator Kennedy, Biden has been in office far too long. It's time to trim the fat in Washington and to replace the old boys club with some new ideas.

Governor Palin is a threat to the good old boy network. She is fresh, she is a devout Christian. She represents everything the good old boy liberal status quo hates: Love of God (not just paying God and religion lip service to obtain votes), love of family (yes Senator Biden, even a baby with Downs Syndrome), love of human life (truly pro-life) and love of country.

The liberal good old boy status quo hates Palin because she is authentically Christian and a threat to their way of life. Hence the constant - and false - attacks against her from the MSM (the propaganda instrument of the good old boy network).

Anonymous said...

Joseph Biden has had 35 years to work to bring us "the change we need." And he hasn't done so. He's just another career Washington insider who will say anything to further his own ambitions. He doesn't care about the American people. He criticized Obama and his lack of experience until he was selected for the Democratic ticket. Now he shouts praise for Obama.

It is too much. We need statesmen. Not the same tired politicians who say the same tired things.

Here in Worcester county, things are as they are around the country: families losing their homes, home-heating costs are spiraling out of control, some people have to choose between breakfast and gasoline for their car so they can get to work.

I just hope McCain is listening. He has a bunch of homes and is very wealthy himself. The American people are in crisis.

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